Flag Football Zone Defense Pros & Cons
Playing flag football zone defense can be difficult for several reasons. First, zone defense is just more complicated than man to man coverage. Zone defense leaves room for confusion and lack of accountability.
When complication leads to confusion, we all know where that will get you. There is also the fact that although the flag football field smaller, you don’t have 11 players to defend it.
So you shouldn’t do it right? Well, we would not go that far. What if you have an impossible receiver to match up against? This is when you need to have a flag football zone defense changeup or two. This type of defensive changeup can serve several purposes.
First, it can help eliminate explosive plays down the field. You force the opposing quarterback to recognize zone and throw accurately. The receivers also have to understand that there is a flag football zone defense being played or interceptions will ensue.
Flag Football Zone Defense Requires You To Understand The Weaknesses Too
Also, don’t underestimate the effect that having a changeup has on an offense. Just making the offense recognize man or zone can create confusion and miscommunication. The hesitation is all it takes to make a fast flag football team play slow. There are flag football formations and plays specifically designed to beat man coverage.
Now back to the challenges. Let’s start with numbers. If you are playing in a 4v4 league and you rush one defender…do the math. That’s right, you are defending the entire field with zone coverage rules and you have three defenders! Who is the deep zone and who is the underneath zone? Hard to do.
Have a Flag Football Play or Defense You Want To Share?
Today on Flag Football Plays Chalk Talk we take a look at this very thing. We are going to tackle it from a 4v4 flag football perspective. It could be applied to any flag football numbers or defense vs any flag football formations.
